Permanent aquifer injection ban stalls in Georgia Senate committee

Walter C. Jones

Tuesday

Feb 25, 2014 at 2:30 PM

ATLANTA -- Legislation to make permanent a ban on injecting water into the Florida Aquifer stalled Tuesday in a Senate committee.

Many states, including Florida, rely on a process called aquifer storage and recovery to pump treated water into the underground caverns of the natural aquifer during periods of plentiful rain. Then the water is pumped back out for use during droughts.

Senate Bill 306, introduced last year by Brunswick Republican Sen. William Ligon, to prevent aquifer storage and recovery effectively died in the Senate Natural Resources Committee when the chairman said there would be no vote on the bill this session. Instead, Chairman Ross Tolleson said separate legislation would pass creating a committee to study it before the next legislative session.

"I think people need to understand what they're doing," said Tolleson, R-Perry.

This isn't a new issue. The legislature first imposed the injection moratorium in 1999 and renewed it four times. The latest is set to expire July 1, so with the failure of SB 306, there would be no ban on injections until the General Assembly can act again in the 2015 session.

The Environmental Protection Division would still have to issue a permit for injection, the agency's lobbyist, Russ Pennington, told the committee while opposing the bill.

"Aquifer storage and recovery is a proven technology that half of the states are using as a water-management technique," he said, noting that many of Georgia's water-management districts also listed it as a viable option in their long-range plans. "(However) there are no planned ASR projects in the coastal zone."

The EPD and business groups like the Agribusiness Council oppose the ban because they say it removes a water-management option, especially in South Georgia where the terrain is too flat for building surface reservoirs deep enough to prevent significant evaporation. On the other hand, environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the Georgia Water Coalition favor it because they say accidental contamination of the huge aquifer could make all of it unusable.

"We have to be careful because this is our only source of drinking water," Ligon said.

Follow Walter Jones on Twitter @MorrisNews and Facebook or contact him at walter.jones@morris.com and (404) 589-8424.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.